MIT’s Soft Rocker The Ultimate Solar-Powered Outdoor Lounger

If one has to lounge in the open on a nice sunny day, why not do it with an eco-friendly outdoor lounger? This artistic-looking wooden lounge chair not only comes with a unique design but is solar-powered as well.

Made by the architecture students of MIT, the solar-powered rocking lounge chair named the Soft Rocker allows one to enjoy resting outdoors in a nice sunny weather but not get overly cooked in the sun rays thanks to a roof built over the whole chair. But its usefulness does not end there, for the roof also accommodates an array of solar panels which converts the sun’s energy into electrical charge stored in an internal battery within the chair.

If you think that’s all to it, you’re wrong. It has something else up its sleeve when it comes to its energy harvesting abilities. Besides having the capability to feed its batteries with power originating from the sun, the lounge chair is also able to convert kinetic energy to electricity when it is being rocked via a kinetic capture system. This further enhances the total amount of electrical energy that can be collected and stored for later use.

With the free electrical power collected in the batteries, one can make use of the stored power to charge devices such as mobile phones, media players and laptops. This clean energy derived from renewable sources can also be used at night to power the cool and futuristic lighting that provides illumination along the interior of the chair. Definitely a cool design that fuses the beauty of both art and science in an elaborate-looking piece of outdoor furniture.